Holy cow, am I calculating right…more than $700 US for the first box set?!!! As much as I’d love to take advantage of the fact that Japan and US share the same Blu-ray region that’s a bit…much…especially for something I already own on DVD. ;_;

Interesting news and they sure chose the right time to publish those: right when CCS|SxS are going to make their appearance in TRC *great timing guys!*
It’s nice thinking we’re going to get many new CCS pictures (they will very unlikely use old images from years ago, will they?) but it’s also very frustrating thinking we can’t get our hands on those, God, it’s REALLY too expensive ;____; But I couldn’t help myself and added it up in my Amazon wishlist, just to look at them T___T *I’m getting pathetic now…*

Where does it say the aspect ratio will be 16:9? It says the resolution will be 1920×1080, but all Blu-ray discs (except for a tiny minority that are 720p) have that resolution. Blu-ray inherently has a 16:9 aspect ratio – it’s built into the format. However, there have been numerous examples (including several recent anime releases) of content being released in 4:3 and the extra space to the left and right being filled with black. I think it’s virtually certain that CCS will be released this way, since a 16:9 release would mean cropping the image, and the Japanese have a tendency to be massive completists, and CCS is a real fan-favourite series. The complaints if they cropped it would be insane.

Two common videographic aspect ratios are 4:3 (1.33:1), universal for standard-definition video formats, and 16:9 (1.78:1), universal to high-definition television and European digital television.

I have no more information about it, but having extra black spaces on the right and left sides is plain ugly and anti esthetics.
It might be like the remastered edition of Sleeping Beauty by Disney: that those pictures were actually already there from the start but hidden to the public viewing when released the first time?
Who knows.

Amazon’s information is often wrong due to them being given incomplete information. Presumably they haven’t been told what the aspect ratio will be (other sites don’t list it at all) and simply put in 1.78:1 as the default since it’s a Blu-ray release, and all Blu-rays are technically 1.78:1 anyway.

“having extra black spaces on the right and left sides is plain ugly and anti esthetics”

It’s also the only way to preserve the original aspect ratio, and is fast becoming the standard for 4:3 anime content on Blu-ray. Don’t be surprised if CCS is released this way. (Also, I’d recommend getting used to it if you have any interest in older anime on Blu-ray. It’s really not that ugly or aesthetically displeasing.)

“It might be like the remastered edition of Sleeping Beauty by Disney: that those pictures were actually already there from the start but hidden to the public viewing when released the first time?”

Very unlikely. CCS was apparently shot on 35mm film, which has an aspect ratio of 1.37:1.

If CCS was really shot in 35mm, then it certainly won’t work as Sleeping Beauty which was made in 70mm ^^;;
The thing is, and the main reason I’m seeking something ‘special’ about this box, is that if it’s really ‘only’ ~passing~ the 4:3 episodes in blu-ray, then the price is not justified at all o__o

For example, if we take the 1st box: Amazon.jp sells it online for 62,244 JPY.
One single blu-ray disc anime cost around 5500 JPY (I took a Macross Frontier blu-ray as reference, since normal movies cost around 4000JPY) but let’s boost the price up to 7000 JPY per disc. The first box contains 7 dics = 49,000 JPY, we are still far from the count. And you have to take in consideration that ‘62,244 JPY’ is a reduced online price, and that the price in stores in Japan is 81,900 JPY!!! o___o Ok, it’s Clamp, Ok it’s a limited edition and Ok it’s CCS but just where does all this money go?!

By the way, the first broadcasting of CCS finished in march 2000, this new release appears exactly 9 years after ^^ A 10 years anniversary might have been better but as said before, I think they are using their probable reappearance in TRC to get all the nostalgic *or new* fans to get those *this is japanese marketing at its best! :P*

I agree that the price is ridiculously high, but the content will be no more or less than anyone really expected from a Blu-ray release of CCS. Bear in mind that the vast majority of movies were and still are shot on 35mm film and look amazing on Blu-ray (because 35mm film, while not having a “resolution” as such because it’s analogue, actually holds far more detail than the 1080p resolution that we currently call high definition). 70mm productions like Sleeping Beauty are very much the exception.

This is a side note, but bear in mind that the Macross Frontier Blu-rays have 3 episodes per disc, while these seven CCS discs will have 6 or 7 episodes on each disc. The price per episode isn’t that far off.

I wonder if it’d have english subtitles? Australian dvds often have five or more different subtitle tracks. If they were going to have any foreign language subtitles at all, they’d have english, right?
$700, huh? Maybe it comes with a limited edition gold plated Kero-chan doll.